[canadave]

Hi,

I have two Macs: a Macbook running Tiger, and a brand new Mac Pro running 10.5.2. They're networked with a wireless router (each has its own static IP). My wife and I both have a user account on each Mac. What's driving us crazy is that there's all sorts of permissioning issues when trying to do things between our user accounts. For instance, if I want to copy a document in my user account's Documents folder to her Documents folder--either on the other computer or the same computer--I get a "You do not have permission to copy this file" error. Yes, we can copy to Shared folders and so on, but it's a pain.

What we want to do is basically remove ALL permission blocks on EVERY folder on BOTH computers, for file copying purposes between user accounts. Wide open. I want to be able to copy documents to any folder, including my wife's user account, on any computer on our network...and vice versa. Is there a way to do this?

Also, is there a more elegant way to auto-connect to shared network folders? I keep having to go to Network, "Connect", and choose a folder. Setting up a connected shared network folder in the Account Preferences pane under the Login Items doesn't seem to work either; Finder never properly reflects it when I log in and open Finder. All I want is to set up a shared folder on each Mac, and have the other Mac be able to establish a connection to it whenever that computer is powered on and running. Ideally it'd be smart enough to gracefully disconnect the folder when the other computer powers off. This seems like a relatively straightforward thing...is it possible to set up? How?

Thanks in advance for any help,
Dave

[Tomchu]

The solution you're asking for is to essentially give world write access to your user home directories. It's probably not the wisest thing to do, but ...

chmod -R o+w /Users/*

And then set your global umask to 0000. The default is 0022. This will be of help: macosxhints.com - 10.4: Set umask independently for Finder.app

The first command gives world write access to your files and directories, while the second ensures that everything new that you create will also be world-writeable.

I have to ask, though ... what's the use of making copies of files you wish to show your wife, rather than just telling her "Go to my home directory and open it"?

[canadave]

Thanks very much, Tomchu...I'll give that a try, that sounds like what I'm looking for.

Your question is a good one Actually, there are times I'd like to be able to do either one. See, usually my wife uses "her" Macbook on one floor of our house, and most of the time I use "my" Mac Pro on another floor. If I want her to have a look at a file I'm working on, obviously the easiest thing would be for her to just connect to my Mac Pro and look at it. However, sometimes it's a file we'll both work on separately. In that case, it's nice to be able to just copy it to her home Documents folder and let her work on it separately.

This does go back to my question about Networking though. Is there in fact a way to just set up connected shared folders automatically without having to constantly authenticate? For instance, on her Macbook, I want to set up certain folders to be shared, like her Documents folder and her Pictures folder. Then, on my Mac Pro, I want those folders to automatically become "shared drives" (think Windows XP) that I can access....without having to authenticate each time I click on them. When she shuts down her Macbook, ideally those shared drive icons would disappear from my Finder. Is that not possible? Or am I thinking too much like Windows? (I'm a relatively recent Windows convert, in case you couldn't tell already

Thanks again,
Dave

[analogika]

All you have to do is to have the checkbox "Remember password in keychain" checked when you connect to the server.

Then just keep an alias to the network drive on your dock or wherever, and if you double-click it, the server should auto-mount.



Removing permissions as described by Tomchu turns your computer into a completely wide-open mess, btw, and makes it absolutely certain that there is NOTHING you can do to protect it from any sort of malicious hacking.

I'm not sure why Tomchu posted his advice above, as somebody who actually needs to know this will find it out, and somebody who has to ask has just received a recipe for disaster.

You might as well just post all your personal data to an open directory on a web server, and maybe set up your own spam mail and kiddie porn server at home.

[canadave]

Thanks for the tips analogika.

So, are you saying there's no good way to conveniently share *complete* access between two user accounts, both intracomputer and between two computers? Once you set up two user accounts on a couple of Macs, they're doomed to only have limited access to each other?

That kind of concept presumes that two different users want their things kept separate, discrete, and inaccessible. But that's totally opposite to what my wife and I want with our separate user accounts. The only reason we set up separate user accounts in the first place was so we could have different desktop customizations, different default views of things, etc. Other than that, we want the accounts to have complete access to everything, everywhere--while, of course, preventing access from outside our little LAN.

You're saying there's no way to securely do that?

[himself]

Why not just use the Public folder in your users' Home folder? Anything you put in your Public folder is accessible to anyone that connects to your computer. Also, there is the drop box inside of that folder that anyone can copy files into.

But I would suggest you upgrade your wife's Macbook to 10.5. Apple finally added a feature (which hasn't been available since OS 9) that allows you to share any folder you choose. You have to first make sure that File Sharing is turned on (in the "Sharing" pane of the System Prefs), and then "Get Info" of the folder you want to share. Expand the "Sharing & Permissions" section at the bottom (you may have to authenticate to edit these settings), and set the desired privilege for the desired user or group.

What may also be a good idea (but may be overkill for your situation) is to get a NAS, or Network Attached Storage device. It is a hard disk you can attach to your router, and any computer on the network can connect to it and access the files there.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by canadave 

Thanks for the tips analogika.

So, are you saying there's no good way to conveniently share *complete* access between two user accounts, both intracomputer and between two computers? Once you set up two user accounts on a couple of Macs, they're doomed to only have limited access to each other?

Between two computers - no problem at all: just log in as the same user across the network.

On a single machine - not so easily. Though you can share iTunes and iPhoto libraries. But just storing the other documents you wish to access from both accounts in the Shared folder as well doesn't seem like any added effort over what you'd do otherwise, frankly.

[Tomchu]

Originally Posted by analogika 

Removing permissions as described by Tomchu turns your computer into a completely wide-open mess, btw, and makes it absolutely certain that there is NOTHING you can do to protect it from any sort of malicious hacking.

Wow, jumping the gun a bit, aren't we?

All that is assuming someone even manages to connect to his computer through some service which depends on the file permissions. That's assuming:

1. His router is wide-open
2. His computer has no firewall
3. His password is blank

Otherwise, it's no-go.

Having 777 permissions on your files doesn't make you any more susceptible to remote hacks -- it just allows anyone who already has an account on the computer, and access to it, to write to your files and directories.